“EXPECT GLITCHES”
by Sharon Rondeau
(Oct. 1, 2013) — Because the House of Representatives was not successful in defunding or delaying the health care law known as Obamacare, the new health insurance marketplaces were announced as open on Tuesday.
Twitchy is reporting that websites established by those states wishing to set up their own exchanges are not functioning and that the federal health care website is “a total mess.”
The state exchange for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, The Health Connector, was working, as was the site for the state of Hawaii.
The website for the District of Columbia was functioning. The state of Idaho has also set up its own exchange. The state of New York’s exchange website is experiencing login difficulties as of this writing.
At 12:30 p.m. EDT, The Post & Email visited the Healthcare.gov website and selected its state of Connecticut, which opted to set up its own insurance exchange. We attempted on three occasions to reach the “Access Health CT” website without success.
Five minutes later, the green circle was still spinning.
CBS News’s Mark Knoller tweeted at 12:37 p.m. that the regime had reported more than 1,000,000 visitors to the healthcare.gov website.
The Affordable Care Act promises “improved quality & lowering health care costs,” although small businesses have reported significantly higher costs and subsequent reductions in employees’ hours to avoid the 30-hour mandate.
A government web page providing a timeline of the rollout of Obamacare states that in 2013, Medicaid was expanded to accept people who previously were not eligible and that “bundling” of services will be encouraged in order to “deliver health care services more efficiently while maintaining or improving quality of care.”
The Health and Human Services Department states that as a result of the Stimulus Bill of 2009, “the numbers of primary care providers in the National Health Service Corps (NHSC) are at all-time highs, nearly tripling between 2008 and 2012.” However, other reports say that the availability of primary care physicians is lower because many chose to retire early rather than face rate cuts and other changes ushered in by Obamacare.
On September 10, Business Insider published an article which reported that:
Approximately 5,000 new graduates enter primary care training each year. The problem is, we need a lot more than that.
The U.S. will face a shortage of more than 90,000 primary care physicians by 2020 and 130,000 by 2025, according to nonprofit firm the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).
But it gets worse. Under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, millions of formerly uninsured people will have access to health care. It’s estimated that 14 million people will be enrolled by 2014, which means the demand for physicians is crucial in the coming years. Not to mention America’s population is aging fast.
While the partial government shutdown which started on Tuesday morning is a result of bills from the House and Senate which must constitutionally be reconciled to become law, there is nothing in the U.S. Constitution authorizing the government to manage, provide or expand health insurance in the United States. Nevertheless, the U.S. Supreme Court found the law to be “constitutional” if the individual mandate were considered to be a tax rather than a provision of the Commerce Clause.
Until Monday, Obamacare was touted as being able to provide “free” health care to uninsured Americans, but The Weekly Standard reported that the word “free” has now disappeared from the HHS website, although the original url address remains intact. As of this writing, The Standard’s website is not working.
In George Orwell’s 1984, statements made by the government were constantly changed by the “Ministry of Truth” so that the public would not know what the facts were.
Before taking office, Obama promised to run the most “transparent” government in U.S. history, but he has not yet produced an authentic birth certificate or Selective Service registration form. His allies in the media have constantly changed the “facts” of his life story for public consumption and refused to discuss the many inconsistencies Obama himself has presented as fact at varying times.
Forgery of a government record is a federal felony offense.
At approximately 1:30 p.m. EDT, Senator Ted Cruz, who spoke on the Senate floor for more than 21 hours last week to protest Obamacare, reported on Twitter that visitors considering registering for the health care program should “expect glitches.”